


Another Life

by hopecountyink



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Drug-Induced Sex, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Multi, Other, Relapsing, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:47:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26345074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopecountyink/pseuds/hopecountyink
Summary: ***Notice - Taking a small break from updates for October and November so I can get Preptober/NaNoWriMo out of the way. Updates will resume after NaNo, so in December***An alternate universe timeline for my female OC, Giordynne Fixman, where her first contact with Eden's Gate is John Seed, instead of the events that occur in my other fic (The Book of Giordynne). This AU is entirely an exercise in indulging the possibilities of what might have occurred instead if events had been different.Giordynne is the daughter of Casey Fixman (the cook at the Spread Eagle who gives the player the Testy Festy missions in-game) and is Falls End's resident tattoo artist.I am also working with a slightly adjusted timeline for canon too, as I have moved John's birth year back to 1982 so that the given canon timeline makes more sense (because my god Ubisoft's editing department really screwed the pooch on that one), which makes him almost 25 years old in the starting timeframe of this fic.Events in this fic begin mid-2007, not long after Eden's Gate set up residence in Hope County
Relationships: John Seed & Original Female Character(s), John Seed/Original Character(s), John Seed/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Holding On To Smoke

It had been about a year and a half since the Project had arrived in Hope County, the first six months having everyone roughing it, sleeping in tents set up in fields rented from local farmers. Jacob and Joseph were both completely unfazed by this kind of accommodation, having led lives before their reunion that had already prepared them for such austere living conditions.

John, on the other hand, despite the hell his adopted parents put him through, had spent his formative years in the city and grown accustomed to a certain level of material comfort that his parents' obscene wealth, and then his own when he inherited their estate, had afforded him.

He didn’t mind it too much at first, approaching it with the view that it was like going on a camping vacation, but he really wasn’t cut out for that kind of living long term, so one of the first acquisitions he’d made when beginning to buy up property got the Project was a home for himself that was much more in line with his personal tastes, as well as having a hangar and private airstrip to allow him to chase his dream of learning how to fly, thanks to the promise of his eldest brother to teach him once they had the means to do so.

While Jacob was tied up with constructing a chapel and dormitories at the island compound Joseph had decided would be the central home of Eden’s Gate, John was given the task of getting to know the residents of Hope County and doing what he did best by using his charm and talents to ingratiate himself with the local mayors, councillors and heads of law enforcement to ensure as few snags as possible with things like planning permission and the relevant licensing and permits for Project members to legally catch and hunt their own food.

This was what John excelled at, after all.

Of course, John was aware that some folks would likely regard him and his brothers with the same level of suspicion as they held for all newcomers, especially those who came to the county with obvious religious tendencies that didn’t necessarily align with the more typical and common faiths one might find in rural Montana. Still, John took this in his stride, taking it as a personal challenge and relishing in the thought of winning the locals over.

One of his first ports of call after getting in with the Sheriff and several high-ranking council officials was the town of Falls End, since it was one of the larger, more populated areas in the county, and had the convenience of being practically on the doorstep of the ranch the youngest Seed sibling now called his home, making them John’s neighbours in his eyes.

The town of Falls End was pretty much what John expected it to be; one long main street that had the town's businesses lining it, with a number of smaller streets coming off it that made up the bulk of the residential area, consisting of modest, timber-framed houses with quaint little yards bordered with white picket fences, the picture-perfect image of the American Dream and a far cry from both the poverty-stricken, rundown neighbourhood he’d been born in and the glistening cities of glass, metal and concrete that had been his home after he’d been plucked out of the foster system.

The irony certainly was not lost on him on seeing that sight.

What he had not expected to find in this Podunk little town though was a tattoo studio, and when he happened upon this little hidden gem, John’s face lit up.

He had gotten his first couple of tattoos in college, just weeks after his adopted parents had died in an unfortunate carjacking gone wrong, periodically adding a new piece at least twice a year. When John pushed open the front door of the studio, he half expected to find that the place was owned and operated by some big, burly biker guy with a speciality in traditional “Sailor Jerry” type work. To find that his assumption was entirely incorrect was a pleasant surprise to John, as it turned out the owner was, in fact, a young woman, around a similar age to himself, and that she had a much more interesting and varied portfolio of work.

John made his first appointment with the artist immediately, learning that her name was Giordynne, and through conversation over the course of several more visits after that, discovered that while she had been born and mostly raised right there in Falls End, she had also spent several years of her childhood in Phoenix, Arizona after her parents divorced, and she had also returned from a stint in the military just a few short months after the Project arrived in the county following a medical discharge.

Their conversations weren’t the only thing that told John more about Giordynne. Having spent several hours in the chair in her studio while she inked him, he’d had plenty of time to notice that parts of her own tattoo collection had the purpose of disguising numerous clusters of scars that ran parallel to one another. John also noticed several half-healed track marks hidden in among the lines near the inside of both her forearms near the crook of the elbow, the unmistakable calling card of intravenous drug use. John said nothing about any of the things he observed during their sessions though, not wishing to put any strain on the tentative familiarity that was building between them by heavy-handedly pointing out something that was likely a sore point for Giordynne.

An opportunity presented itself for John to open up a channel to get to know her on a much more intimate level, though, when, one June afternoon, during John’s eighth tattoo appointment, the session was interrupted when another man burst into the shop, pleading to speak to Giordynne about something.

The man that interrupted looked vaguely familiar to John, but he couldn’t quite place why.

It also quickly became apparent that the other guy had quite a serious drug habit and was currently under the influence of at least one or two substances at that very moment. John pretended that he was doing everything in his power not to eavesdrop on the ensuing argument between Giordynne and the man, though it was extremely difficult given that the studio consisted of more or less two rooms; one at front of house to act as a waiting room and consultation area, and the sterile studio behind where the tattooing was actually carried out. There seemed to be another area behind the studio, but that was labelled as private, and John could only assume that Giordynne happened to live above the studio.

From what John could gather from the confrontation, the man who had barged in had been in a relationship with Giordynne that had very recently disintegrated, and he was begging pathetically for another chance, though Giordynne seemed to be holding firm on her decision to break things off, telling him that they were over and she didn’t want to see him anymore and asking him to stop calling her and showing up at the shop.

Eventually, the man gave up and left, restoring peace to the place, though it was obvious that Giordynne was shaken by the whole experience, evident by a slight tremble in her hands as she apologised and sat back down to carry on with John’s tattoo.

“Is he another bad habit you’re trying to kick?” John inquired sympathetically, canting his head to the side as he observed the way Giordynne fought to regain her composure.

“Something like that,” she answered automatically before she realised what John was insinuating, and when her brain registered, a flicker of defensiveness flashed across her face.

“Hey, look, I’m the last person to be casting judgement on that front,” John assured calmly, showing that he wasn’t trying to criticise. “Just wanted to ask if you’re okay?”

Giordynne put down the tattoo gun and sighed heavily, the breath wavering slightly as it left her lips.

“Honestly, no, I’m not,” she admitted quietly, scrubbing at her nose with the back of one latex glove-clad hand. “It’s nobodies’ problem but mine though, so let’s just forget any of that just happened, okay?”

“GiGi, we can take a break if you need one, and I’m more than happy to pay for extra time if necessary.” he offered gently, a disarmingly soft smile forming on his face.

Giordynne paused for a moment and considered it. She didn’t have any bookings other than John for the rest of the day, so usually she would just push through until then and deal with her shit once there was nobody else around, but John actively giving her the opportunity to address it now was sorely tempting all of a sudden.

“Do you mind?” she conceded finally with another heavy exhale.

“Not at all,” John answered with a shake of his head. “Look, you can tell me to mind my own business if you want, but it seems to me like you could use someone to vent to, so if you feel like you need to get some of that shit out, I swear I’ll take it to the grave.”

“What are you, a therapist?” Giordynne joked, cracking a weak smile.

“Mm, close. A lawyer, actually, but the whole client confidentiality thing still counts.”

“I thought you were _my_ client?”

It was John’s turn to smile, a small huff of a laugh escaping him as he nodded his head at her assessment, then returned to practically giving her friendly puppy dog eyes as he proposed alteration to their existing relationship.

“Well, we could take business out of the equation entirely and become friends instead, if you wanted to? What do you say?”

Giordynne had felt a little intimidated and put off by the confidence John exuded the first couple of sessions they’d had, but the youngest Seed brother had been gently persistent in coaxing her out of her shell. This would be quite a considerable escalation from that though.

“I’d like that,” Giordynne relented, still feeling kind of awkward that John had been forced to witness the scene with Aaron in the first place. “Guess I haven’t really had much by way of friends lately. At least not any that I can really talk to about shit.”

“Oh?”

John looked puzzled, but he was sharp enough to string everything together with the clues he already had.

“I take it your ex is a major factor in that, hm?”

Giordynne nodded, a pained expression etching into her features as her eyes started to get a little glassy from the threat of tears. John picked up on it immediately, sitting forward on the chair and leaning in a little closer so that he was almost conspiratorially close., taking hold of both of Giordynne’s hands in his and giving them a soft squeeze of support.

“Hey, come on. I didn’t mean to hit a sore spot,” he soothed, turning her hands over in his and running his thumbs across her palms. “Can I ask, was he the one who got you onto the shit you’ve been putting in your veins, or has that been going on longer than he’s been around?”

Giordynne didn’t answer, but the way her eyes set in stone at the question told John that the ex was indeed to blame for introducing her to that habit, though it was obvious she hadn’t taken much convincing to do so.

“Are you still using?”

GiGi shook her head, resolute that time.

“Okay, that’s good. And I see you’re in no hurry to go taking a trip back down that road with him.” John smiled another soft, sweet, sympathetic smile, his head still nodding along as he built up a more complete picture of what he was witnessing.

“I fucked up,” Giordynne confessed suddenly, seeming to anticipate that John was going to ask what had prompted the breakup and her decision to get clean. “I fucked up bad. Ended up in the hospital, and they told me…”

The words fell away as tears spilt down Giordynne’s face, her lip quivering.

“I didn’t even know I was pregnant until I already killed the baby.”

It wasn’t quite the bombshell John had expected, but it was a lightbulb moment nonetheless, and he was quick to move to comfort her and offer his condolences.

“I’m so sorry, Giordynne. That is awful,” he murmured sincerely, squeezing her hands much more firmly this time. “I know it’s no consolation for your loss, but it wasn’t your fault. You know that, right?”

“Yes, it was,” Giordynne argued through her tears, adamant that her guilt was justified. “If I hadn’t been getting high, it wouldn’t have happened, so yeah, it _is_ my fault.”

“You mean if _he_ hadn’t gotten you into that shit in the first place?”

It was a deliberate move, designed to divert the guilt onto the ex, and John knew exactly what he was trying to do when he said it. Now was not the time to start doubling down, however. He had enough information to go on for the time being, and this was a girl clearly in need of more than just someone to vent to.

“If I know anything about addiction, it’s that it doesn’t just happen. Something always sets you on that path,” John stated, alluding to his own history of abuses, both self-inflicted and inflicted by others upon him. He considered what he knew of the timeline as far as Giordynne’s return from the military, and applied it to this new information regarding her ex.

“GiGi, what happened that made you take up with a guy like that the start with? Was it something to do with why you left the Army?”

Giordynne sniffled and pulled her hands free, turning her body so that she could roll up the leg of her jeans to show him the prosthesis underneath since she had on her plain metal one today, not the one that had been crafted with a synthetic skin cover that she had decorated with tattoos to blend in with the rest of her work.

“Guess my leg wasn’t the only thing I lost out there. Apparently, I lost my god damn mind too.” She pointed out, wiping her face now that she had gotten somewhat of a grasp back over her emotions.

“How so?”

“The usual thing the Army sends us home for when we’re no longer fit for purpose. Even after my leg was healed and I got a new one, I had to spend a few months in the kind of hospital ward that has locked doors.”

“Sounds like what happened to my brother, Jacob. He served until they broke him too, and he was in real bad shape when Joseph and I finally found him. Boils my blood to think about how this country treats its veterans after they have chewed them up and spit them out. You deserve better.”

“Thanks.”

The conversation lulled for a moment, the silence hanging thick in the air with the weight of everything that had come spilling out between them, and it gave Giordynne a moment to think about what John had said to her earlier as she used the pause to resume working on the partially finished tattoo on John’s shoulder.

“You said you know something about addiction? Is that strictly from your legal work, or…?”

“Personal experience,” John confirmed, his own confession accompanied by an awkward, mildly uncomfortable smile that drew a sharp contrast from his usual confidence.

“Past or present?” Giordynne probed further, appreciating that she could talk about this subject without the usual pity or judgement she got from everyone else around her.

“A bit of both. Mostly past, but you know what they say; old habits and all that.”

“I guess we’re in the same boat on that front?”

“Yeah, I suppose we are,” John acknowledged, the smile returning to his face. “You know, my old therapist kinda had a field day when they took me on as a client. Let’s just say that they had a _lot_ of theories when it came to trying to pin down what was wrong with me.”

“You wanna share that story? It’s only fair since I told you my fucked up little tale.”

“True,” he nodded, accepting that he had opened himself up to that line of questioning.

“Where do I start? My birth parents were pieces of shit, so my brothers and I ended up in the foster system for a while. Then we got separated after Jacob got sent to juvie, I got adopted out and then my new parents turned out to be even worse pieces of shit than my birth ones, so there’s that.”

“Ouch, sorry I asked,” Giordynne winced, pulling back from John’s arm to dip into more ink, suddenly regretting asking him to share. “I guess you win the prize for who had the most fucked up life growing up, ‘cause I’m an only child who only had one emotionally distant narcissist for a parent. The other one just overcompensated after the divorce instead.”

John realised he’d been quite flippant in the way he had skimmed over the horrible details of his upbringing, so he thought he better elaborate a little.

“It wasn’t all bad. I mean, my adoptive parents were comfortably well off, so I at least benefitted from access to a world-class education and never really had to go without anymore like I did before then, and Joseph managed to bring us all back together again so that we could build the Project at Eden’s Gate, so I’d say things worked out pretty well, despite the hardships.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. I forgot you were with those guys,” Giordynne perked up, remembering the few bits of second-hand information she’d scraped together about the group. “My daddy says you guys are kinda religious ‘n’ stuff, like a cult or something. That true?”

It was a crude and rather unflattering way of putting it, but John expected nothing less from people who hadn’t really given the Project a chance to explain what they were all about before most of those people formed their opinions on them.

“Well, I wouldn’t really use the term _cult_ , per se, but yes, it is correct that the Project at Eden’s Gate is a faith-based organization. My brother, Joseph, is the one at the head of it, while Jacob and I each use our own unique skills in support and service of his vision.” John explained, trying not to sound like he was about to pull out a bible and try to preach to her.

“So, you believe in God then?”

“I was raised Southern Baptist.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

The exchange was a little comical, to say the least, but not an all too unfamiliar one, as the Project, and particularly John often came upon those who were either falling away from their particular faith or had not been raised in one at all. Giordynne apparently fell into the latter category, by John’s estimation from her response.

“That’s not a problem, is it? I mean, look, I’m not going to try to convert you or anything. It’s just a part of who I am if that’s okay?”

John’s question suddenly had Giordynne backpedalling, feeling like she had accidentally offended him.

“No, not at all. It’s just… About as close to I’ve come to religion is having an Italian grandmother who was a staunch Roman Catholic. Mom and Dad didn’t really practice any of that stuff when I was a kid. I guess they figured it was better to let me decide for myself if and when that sort of stuff was going to be of any interest to me. If my Nonna was still around today to see how I grew up, she’d probably drop dead of a heart attack on the spot.”

“Oh wow, that serious, huh?” John teased with a laugh, glad that his faith wasn’t going to be an obstacle in their relationship, though he got the distinct impression Giordynne was the sort who might rib him about it playfully from time to time, but would never mean to mock or deride him with any malice.

“Yup. Now hold still while I get this bit done.”

The rest of the conversation for the remaining time of the session returned to much lighter topics, Giordynne glad for the distraction and John’s company, even if the only reason he’d been there in the first place was that he wanted a tattoo. Still, both of them felt like they had gotten to know the other much better by the time Giordynne had finished up, putting cling wrap over the fresh ink and running through the usual spiel about aftercare even though they went through that every time John came in for another piece.

Carefully slipping his arm into his jacket so he didn’t disturb the dressing on his arm, John dug his wallet out to settle the bill, taking out a crisp wad of bills and handing them over, thanking Giordynne for her time and exceptional artistry once more before he headed toward the door.

John noticed that it was starting to get dark out, and the realisation brought with it the worry that Giordynne’s ex might show back up again to hassle her some more.

“Hey, uh, GiGi, I was thinking… If your ex shows up again and you need something to tell him to make him go away, you could always say that you’re seeing someone else?”

“Oh, what, are you volunteering to be my fake boyfriend, John?” Giordynne shot back with a smirk, amused at his audacity.

“I just meant that it might help him take the hint is all.” He corrected, squirming slightly as he realised, she had caused him to blush.

“I know. I’m just fucking with you,” she laughed, following after him so she could lock the door and close up after he left.

“ _Goodnight, John_.”


	2. Burned At Both Ends

It had taken a few days for John to figure out why Giordynne’s ex-boyfriend seemed so familiar to him, but when it did finally dawn on John why it painted a troubling picture.

If John remembered correctly, this _Aaron_ was around the same age as he was, though he no longer looked it with the ravages of his apparent drug habit, and had briefly been a member of the Project, albeit not the most willing one as he had been dragged along for the ride when Aaron’s father uprooted them both from their home in Omaha to join the caravan that made up Eden’s Gate as it passed through Nebraska on its way from their original base in Georgia to their new home in Hope County. That had been sometime in the December of 2005, and to the best of John’s recollection, Aaron had distanced himself from the group by the end of the following Spring.

Back then, Aaron had been clean and sober and had been following in his father’s footsteps into a career in the sciences, though the move had meant that Aaron had had to pause his studies while they relocated.

John had assumed that he had probably gone back to Nebraska to pick up where he left off with his schooling, not stayed in Hope County and become a drug dealer who clearly never heard the rule about not dipping into your own product. From John’s estimation, it had taken less than a year for the guy to go from a promising STEM student to a junkie with a mean habit, judging from how rough the guy looked when he came rolling into Giordynne’s shop, and it was no wonder that it took John some time to recognise him. This left another issue, however. John knew that Aaron had an axe to grind against Eden’s Gate, having left on less than favourable terms, and if he got wind that John was talking to his ex-girlfriend in a manner that was more than just regarding her line of business, that might incite Aaron to grow more persistent in trying to worm his way back into her affections, or at the very least, make heavy-handed and ill-advised attempts to warn her off.

John was certain that Giordynne had a stronger mind than to pay too much attention to the things Aaron might say to her, but if her reaction the other night to his intrusion had been anything to go by, his efforts would likely push her into a relapse sooner or later, and it made John worry what might happen to Giordynne if Aaron was successful.

It was enough to keep John’s thoughts occupied more than he would have liked to admit, but he told himself that he was simply looking out for a friend who deserved to be protected from something that would put her in obvious harm’s way. That this train of thought was enough of an occupying force to make him feel the need to show up more often himself, and not just because he had an appointment for another tattoo, seemed inconsequential to him. After all, they were friends now, not just a business owner and a client, so it really wasn’t all that weird for him to show up in Falls End just for that reason.

Casting a brief glance at his wristwatch to check the time, John figured that the shop would still be open for another hour or so, depending on whether Giordynne had any clients booked that afternoon, so calling to inquire if she had any plans for the evening didn’t seem like too much of an intrusion on his part, and it might do some good at making some headway in getting to know the other residents of Falls End if John was seen out and about in a friendly and casual setting with Giordynne. It also meant that he could alleviate his concern about Aaron showing up unexpectedly again if he were there to see to it that Giordynne had someone in her corner for backup if necessary.

John brought up Giordynne’s number on his Razr2 cell phone and hit Call, pacing slightly as the call rang out for a moment, almost long enough for John to think she wasn’t going to pick up, but then he heard her voice at the other end of the line, answering with the name of her shop as anyone running a business would do.

“Hey, GiGi? It’s me, John. Just calling to see if you had any plans later. No? Oh, good. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out or something?”

John’s tone was smooth and casual, hiding the slight pinch of anxiety he felt at the prospect of refusal and breathing a sigh of relief when she accepted instead.

“Great. I’ll swing by after closing if that’s alright with you. Oh, you’re closing early tonight? Well, I’m free now if that suits you better? Alright then, I will be there in about twenty minutes. See you soon.”

It didn’t leave John with much time to ready himself for the evening, but he was always fairly well turned out to begin with, so a quick change of shirt and running a comb through his hair was really all he needed to pass presentable for a casual night of fun with a friend, probably in that little dive bar next to Giordynne’s shop, or maybe some other venue she liked to frequent that John was not yet familiar with.

Either way, John was prepared for the possibility of having a few drinks, so even though he was about to drive over to Falls End to meet up with GiGi, he could leave his vehicle parked by her place and call Jacob to send someone to pick him up later, despite the distance back to his ranch being relatively walkable. Rural Montana, however, had its fair share of wildlife with which John wouldn’t like to have a run in late at night while stone-cold sober, let alone potentially three sheets to the wind and more than a little wobbly on his feet. And besides, he had had quite enough of getting mud and Lord knows what else stuck to his expensive, Italian leather boots.

John checked the weather before he left his house, debating whether a jacket would be necessary, given that it was Summer, and Montana was rather lovely this time of year. He decided he wouldn’t need one, as it would likely just be in the way and he would have to carry it around all night otherwise.

He took his car keys out of his pocket and pressed the button on the remote fob, deactivating the alarm and unlocking the doors on the metallic midnight blue 2006 Yukon Denali he’d picked up brand new from a dealership two counties over for an absolute steal, not long after the Project had arrived in Hope County. It was not the most inconspicuous vehicle he could have chosen, but the truck handled all the varied types of terrain Montana had to offer with ease.

Joseph had attempted to talk his younger brother into buying a much more modest vehicle, but after sleeping in tents for several months, John was determined to claw back some of his comforts, and the Denali had exactly that to offer, as well as appealing to his more aesthetic tastes.

When John got to Fall’s End and pulled up outside Giordynne’s place, the tattoo shop was already shut, the lights turned off and the sign in the door flipped to closed. John paused, mildly disconcerted until he saw GiGi come out of a back door on the left side of the building, roughly where the room behind the actual studio was, by John’s estimation, and make a beeline straight for the truck.

“Thought maybe you’d stood me up for a moment,” John joked playfully as the driver’s side electric window slid down to greet her.

“Me? Never.” Giordynne smirked, leaning her elbows on the door panel, her hands resting across the slit where the window rolled down into. “So, what did you have in mind when you said you wanted to hang out?”

“Well, I figured I’d let you take the lead on that one, seeing as you’re much more familiar with what this place has to offer on the entertainment front than I am.”

“Fair enough,” Giordynne conceded, taking a moment to mull over the possibilities. “I guess you already know that, if you want to stay in town, the Spread Eagle is about all there is. There’s a couple of good places to eat a bit further out though, especially if you’re feeling hungry?”

“I could eat,” John nodded, intrigued. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, there’s two places over in Henbane. You got Lorna’s Truck Stop or Aubrey’s Diner there, or there’s the Grill Steak up in Whitetail over the other side of Silver Lake? Chad makes some of the best Barbeque in the state.”

“Is that a fact? I take it that, with a statement like that, the Grill Steak is the one you would recommend most of the three?”

“I would. It also happens to be the only one of the three that has decent music, a liquor licence and stays open past eleven.”

The Grill Steak was a little further afield than John had planned for, but if Giordynne preferred to go there instead of the Spread Eagle, he wasn’t going to argue. Especially as it still worked surprisingly well with his contingency plan of calling Jacob to acquire a ride home later.

“Sounds like a plan. You are going to have to give me directions though, as I have no idea where this place is. Deal?”

Giordynne grinned and walked around to the passenger side door, John leaning over to open it for her. Once inside the truck, Giordynne happily directed John to drive north out of Holland Valley and follow the road that ran along the lakeside. John did not know if it was the most direct route out to the Grill Steak, but it certainly had some of the nicest scenery along the way as the road wound directly through the Whitetail Mountains national park. When they finally pulled into the parking lot of the Grill Steak, John noted that the place seemed quite popular from the number of other vehicles in the lot, and he was pleased to see that the place leaned more toward an actual restaurant than a hole in the wall diner. Not by a huge stretch, but just enough for him to not feel that creeping discomfort about the possible state of the food being served within.

Inside also came in above John’s expectations, though the Grill Steak still very much had that signature rustic charm of a backwoods barbeque shack, the walls clad in dark wood panelling and decorated with hunting trophies, photos from around Hope County, and the occasional framed newspaper article giving either a review of the restaurant or mentioning the owner receiving local awards for his food.

When it came to the menu, however, John received his biggest surprise, having largely anticipated the usual wings, ribs and steaks that the restaurant's name implied, and finding that, as well as those, there were listings for larger, more exotic game, all locally hunted and prepared on-site by the owner, Chad, himself. Upon Giordynne’s recommendation, John went for the braised venison ribs. They arrived coated in a sweet, sticky barbeque sauce that had a distinct smokiness to the flavour, underpinned by something that John couldn’t quite put his finger on, but if he had to hazard a guess as to what, perhaps bourbon would be the closest taste he could associate with it, though that might have been because that was the drink of choice for himself and the woman in his company tonight.

The way the Grill Steak was set out, you could either choose to sit in a booth, at one of many tables, or right up at the bar, and this was where John and Giordynne had pitched up, ensuring an uninterrupted flow of drinks between good food and better conversation. John had to admit, despite the very obvious country flavour the restaurant had, the atmosphere reminded him of some of the places he frequented in New York when he’d go bar-hopping during his college days, though the drunken frat boys and twenty-something suits had been replaced by small-town folk in flannel and denim.

Even after plates of bones had been cleared from in front of them, the two remained seated at the bar, content to stay put for as long as the mood took them.

“You said you were a lawyer, right? Where did you go to school for that?” Giordynne inquired, sufficiently loosened up by a few drinks to let her curiosity about him shine through.

“Columbia, New York City,” John answered, taking another sip of his drink, also feeling a light, comfortable buzz coming on.

“Oh, an Ivy League boy, huh? What made you trade the prestige and the big city for a place like Hope County? No offence, but isn’t that kind of a downgrade?”

“No offence taken,” he smiled easily in response. “It was my brothers, actually. After I graduated, I moved back to Atlanta and took a job at a firm there. Managed to fast-track my way up to Associate inside of a year, and then, one day, my brother Joseph showed up. I hadn’t seen him since we got separated after Jacob was taken away, but I recognised him the moment I saw him.”

“That must have been a pretty emotional reunion?”

“Oh yes, very. Especially after everything we had all been through over the years. Until that moment, I didn’t think I would ever see him or Jacob again, so it was a lot to take in.”

“I can imagine…”

Giordynne knew it was likely a very sensitive subject, but John had alluded more than once that his childhood had been fraught with a lot more pain than just that of going through the foster system, and she wanted to understand it better if he would let her.

“Can I ask what happened? I mean, how you ended up in the system and stuff? It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but I kinda want to know how you went from that to being a big shot lawyer.”

Normally, John might be reluctant to go treading over old ground and opening up a few emotional wounds, but the combination of the alcohol and the mutual trust he’d been building with Giordynne over her own mental and physical scars was just enough to coax it out of him.

“Well, my brothers and I were all born in Rome, Georgia. Our father was one of those ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ old-testament fire and brimstone types, especially when he had a belly full of cheap whiskey, which was often,” John explained carefully, absently swirling the liquid in his own glass, clinking the ice cubes inside. “I don’t remember a whole lot about our mother, honestly. I was around four or five when Social Services came and took us away. Jacob told me our mother had a lot of psychiatric issues and probably ended up in an institution, so take from that whatever you will, but Jacob raised both me and Joseph, more or less.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Must have been rough?” Giordynne sympathised softly, her fingertips gently brushing John’s arm in a supportive gesture.

“You’d think that would have been the end of it, but unfortunately, that was far from the worst that happened to us. There was a small amount of reprieve as we got bounced from one temporary home to another for a while, and then we got placed with this couple that owned a farm. Turned out they wanted free labour, not children, and the reason Jacob got taken away from us is that he got sick of us being mistreated one night and burned the farm to the ground. They sent him to Juvenile Detention, and Joseph and I went back to the orphanage.”

Giordynne was stunned at the revelation, but from the sounds of things, Jacob had been justified in exacting his revenge to protect his brothers.

“It wasn’t much longer after that that Joseph and I also got separated. I was around eight if I remember correctly. The couple that came into the orphanage only wanted one child, and since Joseph was older and the social workers were worried he was going to end up like Jacob sooner or later, my parents only took me. Little did I know at the time that they were just as religiously zealous as the Old Man had been, but with more money and less alcohol.”

“Oh my god, John, I’m so sorry.”

“No. Don’t be. Yes, they were strict and deeply devout, but they were acting out of love. They wanted to fix me and make me a better person.” John shrugged dismissively, the smile on his lips never reaching his eyes.

Giordynne wanted to argue and point out how fucked up that sounded, but the look in John’s eyes told her that he had to hang on to that belief to live with what had been done to him, and no amount of her trying to make him see it as nothing more than abuse would break through that conviction.

“Are they who pushed you into going to law school?” she asked, tentatively wondering if John’s entire success as an adult was built on shouldering a horrific level of expectation placed upon him by demanding parents.

“Not entirely. Sure, they made sure I had the best education money could buy and gave me plenty of encouragement, but it was ultimately my choice to go into law, and they were very proud of me for getting into Columbia.”

Again, Giordynne got the distinct impression she was talking to a mask as John answered her question, but she had been the one to prompt such a deep dive into his past, so it was understandable that John would throw up such a defence mechanism in response to it.

“How did they react when Joseph tracked you down again?”

“They didn’t. Mom and Dad passed away not long into my second year in law school. Unfortunate business, really. The police said they had been involved in an attempted carjacking. Dad wouldn’t hand over the keys to the Bentley and a struggle ensued. They were both shot to death at a stoplight in broad daylight in the middle of downtown Atlanta, and yet the police never did manage to find the man who did it.”

Giordynne was silent, absolutely heartbroken by what John was telling her. On the outside, he was the paragon of success; the American Dream in action, but everything from the foundation up was built on the extensive catalogue of suffering and tragedy that John had endured to get there. It was no wonder that John clung to his faith so vehemently if that was all that was holding him together, and Giordynne felt so sad for him, having to take a large gulp of her drink to buy herself a moment to collect her thoughts and respond, though she was hardly sure she knew what would even be appropriate to say to him at that moment.

John seemed to pick up on the sudden silence between them and quickly scrambled to fill it.

“Please don’t worry yourself too much about all of that,” he soothed, trying to lighten the mood back up. “Look, I have both of my brothers back now, we’re building our own family in the Project, I have my health and my wealth, a successful career, a nice house in a beautiful, picturesque location, and I get to hang out and talk to an absolutely stunning knock-out of a woman with incredible talent and brilliant wit, so I’d say life is looking pretty fan-fucking-tastic these days.” He grinned, picking up his drink and holding it out in a toasting gesture.

Giordynne considered for a brief second, then picked up her own glass and clinked it against his, a slightly bashful smile spreading across her face at the compliment he had given.

Both took a drink as the mood began to settle again, though the peace was short-lived when Giordynne’s gaze drifted to the main door of the restaurant as someone opened it, her heart sinking the moment she saw who had just walked in.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me?” she groaned under her breath, quickly turning away from the door and hoping she had not been seen.

John cast a glance in the direction she had been looking and saw why Giordynne had shied away suddenly.

Aaron had just walked into the Grill Steak, hollering a greeting at Chad and asking if his food was ready for pick up before he noticed either of them at the other end of the bar.

“Hey, uh, you know how you said I should pretend I’m seeing someone else? Is that still on the table?” Giordynne muttered quickly, knowing that Aaron would look their way at any moment and spoil the evening they were having by causing another scene.

“Sure-,” John answered, trying to read the situation and coming up confused.

“Good.” She interrupted, not giving him a chance to say another word as she pulled him into a kiss right as Aaron finally set eyes on them.

John blinked, stunned for the briefest moment until he caught on and went with it, leaning into the kiss and slipping his arms around Giordynne’s waist to make it look convincing, carefully turning them both slightly so that he was now facing in a direction that allowed for him to make direct eye contact with Aaron before he broke away from Giordynne’s lips.

Aaron looked completely shattered when he realised who exactly was locked in a passionate clinch with his ex-girlfriend, the sight of John fucking Seed hitting him like a punch in the gut. He stood frozen to the spot, staring for several seconds, the finishing blow coming as John broke from the kiss and flashed Aaron a cold, deliberate smirk, knowing exactly how it looked to the other male. It was enough to do the trick, Aaron completely forgetting about his food order as he tapped his fingertips awkwardly on the bar a couple of times, then turning on his heel and walking straight back out of the restaurant before he would let anyone else see how bothered he was.

The squeal of tyres leaving the parking lot told John that Aaron was gone and things could return to normal, straightening himself up and picking up his drink again.

“I think your ex might have finally got the picture,” he commented, letting Giordynne know that the coast was clear for her to relax again.

“I fucking hope so,” GiGi sighed in return, downing the rest of her drink in one to bolster her nerves.

Nevertheless, the incident had soured the mood slightly, and it was getting quite late anyway, so it seemed like as good a time as any to call it a night, John finishing his drink and settling their bill before they walked outside into the warm night air.

John knew both of them had had more than enough to drink for either of them to get behind the wheel, so he put in a quick call to his brother, just as planned, giving a brief description of where they were and getting an estimated time of arrival in return. Jacob told his baby brother that it would be about half an hour before he could swing by to pick them up, as he was at the Project’s compound on the other side of Silver Lake and had to finish up a couple of things before he set off.

This gave John and GiGi a little extra time to chat in the parking lot, both taking a seat on a raised railing as they waited for Jacob.

“I had a good time tonight. Thanks for the invitation,” Giordynne smiled, relaxing as she tuned into the sound of crickets in a nearby patch of grass scrub. “Oh, and thanks for being my fake boyfriend when Aaron showed up.”

“Anytime,” John nodded graciously, happy to have been of service, even if part of his motivation at the moment had purely been to spite Aaron rather than see to it that he got the message to leave Giordynne alone.

“The last time I had to ask a gay guy to be my fake boyfriend was in high school.”

“What?”

John had to do a double-take before he burst out laughing.

“I’m not-,”

“Shit, I’m sorry. When you said your parents were religious and they wanted to ‘fix’ you, I guess I thought you meant…”

“No, no, it’s fine,” John reassured her, still trying to contain his laughter. “I mean, yeah, I’m not gay, but I’m not exactly straight either, so”

“Oh,” Giordynne nodded, taking another beat for the penny to drop. “Oh!?!? So, you’re…?”

“Mhmm.”

Gigi’s cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment, though John was taking the whole thing in his stride.

“So, if you are bisexual, how does that all fit in with your _beliefs_ exactly? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, but a lot of religious folks I’ve met usually have some pretty fucked up _opinions_ about that shit.”

“Not a dumb question at all,” John smiled softly, appreciating that she was openminded to the concept rather than one of the types of people she was referring to.

“Back then, yeah, it was hard to reconcile my sexuality with my faith, and after Mom and Dad died, I sort of went off the rails for a while, but since I became part of the Project, it’s been a lot easier. Especially as we’re not one of those organisations that believes the gender of the person you love has any bearing on whether you are worthy of a place at Eden’s Gate.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you’ve found a place that allows you to be happy and open about that,” Giordynne answered, feeling the awkwardness of moments ago dissipate. “Oh, and for the record, since we’re on the subject, I’m bi too.”

“Really? Hope County doesn’t exactly strike me as the kind of place that has a large LGBT representation, so it’s nice to know I’m not the only one around.”

“You’re kidding, right? Have you seen Brokeback Mountain? Cowboys are gay as all get out.”

“I suppose,” John laughed, conceding her point. “Can you blame a boy raised in the city for thinking such things though?”

“I guess I can let you off, though I probably would have thought the same if I’d stayed in Phoenix, to be honest.” Giordynne nudged him playfully with her elbow.

“So, what dragged you back here?”

“Mom decided she was more interested in finding herself a new man than being a mom. She started bringing home different guys all the time. Most were married and just fucking with her on the side, but she kept chasing them because they had fat wallets and mouths full of bullshit promises about leaving their wives. Dad ended up sending me the money for a bus ticket back here when I was fifteen. Mom was pissed that he went behind her back and all, but since it meant she didn’t have a kid to deal with anymore, she signed full custody over to Dad.”

“Sounds like neither of the women who brought us into this world was exactly worthy of the title of mother,” John murmured, head bowing in sympathy.

“I’d say that’s the understatement of the fucking year,” GiGi agreed with a slightly bitter laugh as headlights cruised up and over the crest of a small hill and descended along the road toward the Grill Steak before turning into the lot and stopping ahead of them, the driver honking the horn. John waved a hand in response before standing and dusting himself down.

“Look’s like that’s our ride?”


	3. Necessary Evil

Giordynne had closed the shop early tonight, given that she didn’t have any appointments booked for the rest of the evening, and it did not look like she was going to get any walk-ins tonight. No matter, she wasn’t all that in the mood to work anyway, feeling distracted by that old familiar itch under her skin that still reared its ugly head more frequently than she liked to admit.

It was late July, four days before her twenty-fifth birthday and her dad was away for work, so the prospect of spending it on her own had set off the little gnawing sensation in her nerves that had her almost entertaining the idea of heading over to Aaron’s place just so that she didn’t have to be on her own. The only thing that stopped her was the knowledge that going there would result in her giving in to her cravings and getting fucked up, both physically and emotionally, and it would have Aaron coming back around to try to convince her to get back with him all over again.

The best she could hope for right now was to go for a drive and hope that helped clear her head, or at least provide enough of a distraction to tide her over until she went home and crashed out for the night.

Grabbing her jacket and her keys, she flipped off the light switches on the way out of the door and locked up before walking around the side of the building to where her black 1984 Chevy Silverado was parked, the truck her most prized possession since the day her dad had gifted it to her for her eighteenth.

Starting the truck, Giordynne turned the stereo on and took her iPod out of the glove compartment, hooking it up to the stereo and scrolling through her playlists until she found one that suited her mood, hit play and then backed out of the spot round to the front of the shop before she put her foot down and peeled out of Falls End, heading up the long, straight road that blew straight through town from one side to the other and out onto the highway to the drumbeat intro that opened Dani California.

It was a cool night for July, and the breeze that came in through the open windows of the truck was soothing as Giordynne drove north out of Holland Valley and up toward the West gate of the Whitetail Mountains park.

The road that ran through the mountains from one side of the park to the other was long and somewhat winding, but that was exactly what she needed right now; that long strip of asphalt ribbon stretching out through some of the nicest landscapes Hope County had to offer in contrast to the vast tracks of flat and wide farmland that covered most of Holland Valley and crept over the Henbane River.

When she got to the gate, the sun was just starting to dip behind the mountains, staining the sky in hues of pink, orange and red, the slight scattering of clouds tinted almost lilac in the fading light, and by the time she got out toward the visitors centre, deep shadows carved their way through the trees and crevices, pulling with them the creeping blue velvet of Montana night. They didn’t call it 'Big Sky Country' for nothing. Not when it was once of the best places Giordynne had ever known for stargazing, the sky black as ink during cloudless new moons, lit with so many pinpricks of light that it was impossible to count them.

She cruised up past the Visitors Centre, half considering stopping there and seeing if it would still be open at this hour, even though the roads got quiet as the grave once the sun went down over the county. The lights were all off though, and the parking lot empty, absent even of any vehicles belonging to the staff who worked there.

It was likely that the park was technically closed by now and Giordynne hadn’t realised, but the gates served more as information points than to actually prevent anyone going through the area after hours, as there were residences dotted throughout the region that would need access regardless of the time of day, or if it was a public holiday. Most of them were cabins owned for the express purpose of taking advantage of the good hunting and fishing in the area, but there were also plenty of places that were points of interest more geared toward tourism, as well as a handful of places that acted as summer camps and such, though they were fewer in number in recent years after some closed from lack of funding.

Giordynne had crossed about two-thirds of the way through the park by the time it was fully dark, the moon peeking out through gaps in the cloud cover and casting its light over the water, giving Silver Lake its name as the ripples on the surface shimmered brightly, distracting her for a moment.

Just long enough for her to not notice the animal that darted out in front of her truck until she was almost on top of it, the truck's brakes slammed on and the tyres screeching on the blacktop of the highway, bringing the vehicle to a stop with only inches to spare.

As Giordynne clung to the wheel tightly, gripping hard enough to turn her knuckles white, a shape moved just below the front edge of the truck's hood, fur catching in the headlights as it moved to the left and appeared in the space beside the driver’s side door. A large, triangular head covered in sable-coloured fur stuck its nose up toward the open window and sniffed briefly, Giordynne frozen still as she came face to face with a timber wolf that seemed entirely unfazed by either her presence or how close it had come to death.

The wolf paused, sitting for a moment to scratch its ear with its hind paw before it bolted off and disappeared out of sight into the undergrowth.

A few more moments passed as Giordynne sat there in her truck, stunned and still a little in shock from the close call, but eventually, she took a deep breath and cursed herself for not paying more attention to the road, slowly easing off the brake and back onto the accelerator and the truck crept forward and on toward the McKinley Dam, planning to loop back down past the Drubman Marina and through Henbane to get back to Falls End, even if it did mean she had to pass by the Moonflower Trailer Park and the knowledge that Aaron still lived there.

Acknowledging that thought set her on edge all over again as she crossed over the dam, coming up on the old water filtration plant that had closed a few summers ago. Giordynne had assumed it was still abandoned until she saw several white pickup trucks pulling out of the entrance, headed up by an old Jeep and followed by a remarkably familiar midnight blue Denali.

The driver of the Denali had to be John. Giordynne was absolutely certain that nobody else in the county drove a vehicle anything like that, or at least one clearly as new as that.

Given that he was bringing up the rear of a convoy of vehicles, Giordynne quickly worked out that she must have stumbled upon some Eden’s Gate business, especially if John had acquired the filtration plant for the Project for some reason. It seemed like an odd place for a religious group to be interested in, but who was she to judge when she did not know a whole lot about them?

On a whim, Giordynne started to follow the convoy, keeping a discreet distance so she didn’t look like a complete creeper if John happened to check his rear-view and see her.

The convoy drove the route Giordynne had planned to take back toward Fall’s End, at least as far as passing the Marina and crossing into the Henbane. Giordynne was thankful, however, when their route diverged before they got anywhere close to the trailer park, the convoy instead stopped and turned into the gate of a field that was empty aside from a large white marquee that had been erected in the middle of it, at the end of the dirt track that snaked up from the gate, as well as a cluster of other cars and trucks that were parked close to the tent.

Giordynne had heard that Eden’s Gate often held their services in such a manner, renting out space from local farmers in all areas of the county, allowing for residents from everywhere to come and see what all the fuss was about if the mood struck them. She didn’t know if this was only a temporary arrangement though since John had mentioned that his eldest brother was constructing a permanent chapel and boarding houses for Project members on one of the islands out by Silver Lake.

The notion that she’d stumbled upon one such service though suddenly had Giordynne feeling like she was intruding on something quite personal and not meant for her, similar to how she often felt whenever folks gathered for Pastor Jerome’s services on Sundays at the church in Fall’s End. It just wasn’t really her thing.

For a moment, she thought about just driving straight by and going home, a slight sense of embarrassment filling her, but at the same time, with how she’d been feeling all evening this far, she sort of wanted to talk to John, even if it was just to get some reassurance and put her back on an even keel before she went back home. By the time Giordynne made anything close to her mind up though, John’s truck was already parked by the marquee and everyone who had been milling around outside was now heading inside for the start of the sermon.

This gave her three options.

She could either abandon any notion of speaking to John tonight, go home and hope like hell she didn’t cave and risk relapse, wait in her truck by the gate for the sermon to finish and maybe catch John on the way out or park her truck, put on her big girl panties and go politely sit through the sermon before she spoke to him. Growling to herself at being such a flake, she made herself choose option number three. After all, just because she didn’t believe in God personally didn’t mean she couldn’t at least indulge John a little and learn about what he believed in, and she was sure that he would appreciate the effort, even if it was just lip service on his behalf.

Killing the engine, she got out hurriedly, locking her truck before she hopped the now-closed gate and started up the slight hill toward the marquee, the strings of lights hung along its eaves shining out in the darkness like a beacon, powered by a little portable generator that hummed against the background noise of crickets and cicadas.

Giordynne had not expected the tent to be quite so full of people when she finally got there. All the metal folding chairs that had been set up inside were taken, and there were more people still lining the back and sidewalls, forcing Giordynne to stand just inside the entrance. She spotted John at the front, standing off to the side behind his brother, Joseph, who was giving quite the impassioned speech about how the world was heading toward collapse, and that the Project was going to weather it out by stockpiling supplies in bunkers to protect those who chose to join them.

It was hardly the first time Giordynne had come across this sort of ideology. Hell, Hope County was especially prone to attracting Doomsday Preppers from all walks of life. Even half of the people she considered friends had some sort of plan and provisions should the whole world go to shit one day, so the Project doing the same thing with a large helping of faith mixed in didn’t have her batting an eyelid.

Hey, whatever helped these people sleep at night, more power to them.

The sermon was not at all unpleasant. If anything, Joseph Seed seemed to have a pretty solid grasp on what he believed, and Giordynne could admit that he made some good arguments here and there. It wasn’t nearly enough to convert her on the spot and have her cry ‘Hallelujah’ to the heavens, but it was interesting, at least.

Before the service had ended, John had already spotted Giordynne lingering at the back of the marquee, a little surprised to see her there, but pleased nonetheless, and the moment the sermon was over and everyone was free to socialise, John made a beeline directly for her.

“Well, well, didn’t expect to run into you all the way out here,” John purred warmly, wondering what exactly had brought her there this night.

“Neither did I,” Giordynne answered truthfully. “I was passing by, saw your truck, thought I’d come and say hi.”

“Oh, then Hi.”

John could read the slight awkwardness in Giordynne’s body language, picking up on the impression that this had not been quite as straightforward as she had explained it to be.

“Is everything alright? You seem a little…” he inquired; unsure what word would best describe the visual cues he was getting from her.

“Um, yeah, I guess. I just…” GiGi hesitated, her smile faltering for a second. “Actually, no, everything is not alright. Nothing major, just sort of a weird mood with my dad being out of town when it’s my birthday in a few days. I know, sounds kinda dumb, right?”

“That’s not dumb, GiGi,” he reassured her, letting out a slight sigh as he took hold of her hands. “Not dumb at all. On the contrary, I think it’s quite justifiable.”

John paused to let Jacob pass by with a can of gasoline go top up the generator before he resumed speaking.

“If it would help, I’d be more than happy to help you celebrate. I’m sure we can think of something to help things go off with a bang?”


	4. Cry Little Sister

The beer bottle smashed against the kitchen wall, exploding in a shower of green glass, amber liquid and white foam. Drinking was not enough to dull the sharp, gut-wrenching pain carving its way through her veins.

Just days ago, she’d been celebrating both hers and John's birthdays, taken out for dinner and then to a nightclub the next county over by a guy who had gone above and beyond to see to it that she had a great time. That feeling seemed so far out of reach now though, the phone call she’d taken earlier shredding every fragile thread of happiness she’d scraped together and replacing it with overwhelming grief she had never expected to feel for the woman who had abandoned her when she was just a kid.

It had been a shock at first. Unreal when those words came down the phone line. After the call ended though, Giordynne was alone in the silence of her kitchen with nothing but her thoughts for company, and they had come crashing in like the whole building had collapsed down around her ears, a sense of anger and all those unresolved questions about why she wasn’t good enough for her mothers love all she had left in the wake of the news that she would never get the opportunity to address any of it.

Several beers had been downed in an attempt to keep those feelings at bay, but by the fourth, all the alcohol was doing was fuelling the issue, Giordynne rapidly heading into a self-destructive tailspin and that sickening itch in her skin that begged to be scratched.

Whether it was the grief or the beer clouding her judgement, she left her apartment and got into her truck, burning out of Fall’s End like the devil himself was chasing her. Giordynne had no plan for where she was heading, nor did she care. The only thought in her mind was to get as far fucking out of it as was physically possible, and for that, she would need to score something strong enough, and fast.

A summer thunderstorm was rolling in as she drove out to the bridge that connected Holland Valley to Henbane River, muscle memory guiding her hand as she steered her truck along the rain-soaked highway in the direction of the old ghost town of Prosperity, knowing that she would find substances of the calibre she sought within one of the abandoned and derelict buildings her ex used to store his stash and the shit he used to cook it up with.

When she got to the bridge though, she found herself slamming on the brakes, the truck skidding several feet on the slick asphalt. Giordynne stared at the metal structure, illuminated by a flash of lightning behind the sheet of heavy rain. That little voice that had been willing her to go get something to dull the pain was suddenly screaming at her, questioning why she had stopped. Giordynne could not answer its questions or demands if she tried, not knowing herself why. Maybe it was some unseen hand of fate that had halted her, but the minutes spent staring down that bridge gave her just enough time to consider another option. If she continued across the bridge and went and raided Aaron’s stash, she’d either end up looking for him to help her get wasted, which would undo all the work in finally getting him to leave her alone, or she’d wind up somewhere on her own, get fucked up and maybe do something she wouldn’t live through to see the next morning.

As much as Giordynne needed to take something to make the pain go away, the cost of those two probabilities just wasn’t worth it. Slowly, she turned the truck around, putting the bridge to the Henbane in her rear-view and trying to pull her attention away from it, tears starting to spill down her face.

She wasn’t going back home. If she did that while feeling like this, there was a chance she might pick up one of those shards of the broken bottle and put it to use.

Instead, she made a detour, taking the southern road back through the Valley, past Rye and Sons.

The thought occurred to her that showing up unannounced and in this state might be unwelcome at the very least, but Giordynne was skating on very thin ice, and John was the only person she could think of right now that might be able to talk her down off the ledge and out of the idea of using to get out of her head enough to not feel for a while.

By the time the truck pulled up the driveway and stopped out front of the ranch, Giordynne was practically hysterical, warring with the nagging impulse to seek out whatever drug she could get her hands on, even if it meant giving Aaron false hope.

In her desperate state, Giordynne hadn’t realised she had forgotten both her jacket and to put shoes on, stumbling clumsily across the gravel between the truck and the ranch’s porch in the downpour, followed by frantic knocking and pounding on the door, praying to whatever deity might be listening that John was home and would answer the door.

Her prayers and the door were answered.

John had been surprised and instantly alarmed when there came a sudden, frenetic pounding at his door, given the late hour and the fact that he was not expecting company, especially given the weather.

When his gaze fell upon the distraught, half-soaked frame of Giordynne standing on his doorstep with a look in her eyes that had him feeling a sense of panic at the meaning of it, he was all the more alarmed.

“GiGi? What…?” he began, trying to make sense of the vision before him.

Had she run into some sort of trouble? Been attacked?

John could see no immediate signs of injury or torn clothing to suggest anything of the sort, but she was lacking shoes and shivering, though John could not tell if that was from the rain or her obvious state of distress.

“I-,” Giordynne faltered, trying to will her brain to work enough to explain herself. “My mom, she’s… my dad said there had been an accident and…”

Though Giordynne wasn’t talking in complete sentences, it didn’t take much to put the pieces together and connect the dots, John realising that the poor girl was in a state of grief-induced shock that was threatening to turn into a full-blown crisis.

“Oh, GiGi, I’m so sorry,” John commiserated, quickly ushering her inside and into the warmth provided by the open fireplace in the centre of the large hall.

He thought for a moment to go get a blanket from upstairs to wrap around her shoulders and warm her up, but he worried about leaving her alone, at least for the time being, so he settled for guiding her over to the couch and getting her sat down by the fire before he could better assess the situation and formulate a plan accordingly.

John let out a heavy sigh as he sat down beside Giordynne, far more hesitant than he would normally be in less sensitive circumstances. Part of him wanted deeply to help her, but he also had to acknowledge that seeing her like this had triggered his fight or flight response, and he was fighting the part of his brain that didn’t handle these sorts of emotions at all well, so he was stuck looking helplessly at this angel of despondency, trying to work out some practical way to help her that wouldn’t make the situation infinitely worse. When the girl burst into tears all over again though, a barely-used instinct took over, John tentatively moving to put his arms around Giordynne and pull her close, offering his literal shoulder to cry on and feeling slightly relieved when this seemed to be the correct course of action as Giordynne collapsed against him and buried her face into the crook of his neck, heaving sobs wracking her body as the grief came tumbling out.

A couple of seconds passed as John got more confident in his ability to handle the flood of emotion, his hold on Giordynne tightening a little as he moved one hand up to half cradle her head, half stroke her hair, making a soft shushing sound to try to soothe her.

John considered calling Joseph to see if he could help by offering Giordynne some counsel in her time of need, but he remembered that she had said that she wasn’t religious, so perhaps this wasn’t the right time to have the Father intervene, despite Joseph being much better at this sort of thing than John was, and he didn’t think that Jacob would be much help in this situation either, so it was up to the youngest Seed sibling to try to navigate this difficult circumstance himself, especially given that Giordynne was his friend, after all.

He continued his attempts to pacify Giordynne until her weeping began to subside enough for her to regain some composure over herself.

“Sorry, I-,” Giordynne apologised, pulling away eventually and scrubbing at her face, futilely trying to wipe away the tears that had already left her face pale and a little puffy around the eyes.

“You don’t have to apologise, GiGi. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s _not_ ,” she argued, her voice squeaking a little as her emotional state started to climb another crest again. “Everything’s all fucked up, _I’m_ all fucked up. And all I wanna do right now is not feel like this.”

“I know, but that’s what grief does; it hurts like hell.”

“That’s not what I mean. I meant that I wanna get so fucked up that I can’t feel anything anymore.”

The confession stung John all too familiarly, knowing that desperation in wanting to self-medicate oneself into complete numbness. He had not given into that temptation in a long time, but the pull of it was still present under the surface, and it resonated and sympathised with her plight.

“Did you come here because you wanted me to talk you out of using?” he asked, wanting to make sure he was absolutely clear on the situation at hand.

“I don’t know. I thought about going to where my ex keeps his stash, or maybe drive my truck off a bridge but then I came here instead. I don’t know why. I just-”

“Don’t trust yourself not to do something that’s going to cause you harm?”

Giordynne nodded, shying away at the admission.

She knew it was far too much to put on John, and she had no right to expect him to try to shoulder even a small amount of the responsibility of it, but Giordynne was desperate and didn’t know who else she could talk to, especially about wanting to use drugs.

John sighed and thought for a moment, wondering if maybe he was the right person to handle this after all.

“Look, I know I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but if you need something to take the edge off, and someone to be around to keep you from going over the edge, I can do that for you. I’ve got a few _things_ upstairs I keep for when I’m also struggling a bit, and I’d be an asshole to let you go back out there tonight, so you’re welcome to stay over, and I promise I will do everything within my power to help you if I can.”

Giordynne looked at him like he was a god damned saint, come to her in a vision in her darkest hours. John knew he was anything but, however, and as much as it grated against everything he’d been trying to become since Joseph found him and they’d started Eden’s Gate, John figured that sometimes a little sin was necessary to save someone else.


	5. The Perfect Drug

If it had been anyone else, chances were that John would have tried much harder to hold fast in his attempts to remain clean and sober, but the picture of devastation that had shown up on his doorstep during a raging thunderstorm in the middle of the night had him shaken, the circumstances of her appearance against the backdrop of the inclement weather holding a strange ominousness to it that had his resolve weakening like shifting sands at high tide.

Logic would have dictated that he simply just comfort the girl and keep watch over her until the storm both outside and within passed, but she had caught him in his own moment of weakness, and it was one he couldn’t say with confidence that she wasn’t at least partly the cause.

And so he had acquiesced to both of their demons in an instant when Giordynne confessed that she was standing on the precipice of relapse, opting to indulge that darkness in hopes that letting it happen would help them both get it out of their systems so that they could return to some semblance of equilibrium, the secret of their indiscretion kept between them, no other soul needed to know that they had both given into their weaknesses in search of salvation.

John had acquired the box he kept hidden in the back of the drawer at his bedside. It was small, square and plain, the wood simply sanded smooth, stained and varnished, with a lock holding the lid closed. If anyone happened across it, they might have overlooked it, assuming that it might contain a small number of foreign cigars that had been a gift, or perhaps just a place where John might keep his expensive watches and other items of jewellery. He doubted that even Joseph would immediately suspect its true purpose unless John was caught red-handed with it open and the contents spilt out before him.

The box was set down on the coffee table, John unlocking it with the key that was kept surreptitiously on the ring that contained those that opened the various doors in the ranch, and the remote fob for the midnight blue Denali parked outside.

Within the wooden case, there were several compartments separated by small dividers to keep the contents organised by purpose.

A cursory inspection would tell the person looking upon it that John still struggled often with his addiction to cocaine, the quantity inside more than just what one might have for a single, casual nights use, and certainly more than enough to have him up on charges of intent to supply if law enforcement were to catch him with it.

This was not what John was offering up to share with Giordynne though, knowing that, in her state, the effects of a coke binge would not be preferential or at all helpful in dulling the cause of this kind of pain.

He let her peruse the rest of the box, curious to see what she would opt for from his miniature pharmacy of recreational substances that were all high-grade quality since John didn’t fuck around with the street-level shit that could be cut with who knows what else.

Giordynne’s eyes wandered over the trove before her, using her emotional state to direct her which way she wanted to go. For a moment, her gaze lingered on a half-empty bottle that had a prescription label printed on it in the name of “John Duncan”, the little white bars of Xanax just barely visible through the brown glass. These might help Giordynne pass out into a dreamless sleep, but it didn’t seem fair on John for her to just up and medicate herself into unconsciousness after showing up the way she did, so she moved on to the other sections.

John watched as Giordynne’s hand briefly hovered over the box before plucking out two bags with a press-seal closure; a larger one with a plentiful quantity of marijuana in it and the smaller containing a number of bluish-tinged pills in the shape of tiny diamonds.

Her selections were reasonable enough in relation to her emotional state. Especially the bag of ecstasy tablets, which John generally kept on hand for occasions when he wanted to get as high as physically possible without the aggressive and sometimes harsh edge that came when he took too much cocaine. The weed would also potentially offset any anxiety, nausea or paranoia that the molly might trigger as it kicked in. This girl knew what she was doing when it came to counteracting the less desirable effects of what she was consuming, and John had to quietly admit to himself that he was a little impressed, even if it was a natural consequence that most hardcore drug users developed through the lifetime of their habits.

With Giordynne’s choice made, John closed the box and returned it back upstairs to remove the temptation to start dipping into other substances once they were both beyond a reasonable sense of mind. The last thing either of them needed tonight was an overdose on their hands.

There was still a flicker of hesitation in John’s thought process as he stowed the box back in the drawer, having to mentally check himself before he left the room and returned downstairs. The moment his eyes were back on Giordynne though, he was doubling down on his decision to break his clean streak for her, convincing himself it was only so that she didn’t feel so uncomfortable about him remaining sober while she got out of her head.

If John was completely honest to himself or anyone else, he would have to admit that it never did take much of a push to get him to indulge his demons, greeting them like old friends whenever he fell off the wagon.

He might have poured them both a stiff drink if Giordynne had chosen something else as her drug of choice, but John had learned in his earlier college days not to mix alcohol with MDMA in either powder or pill format after a close call in a nightclub that had him vomiting an acidic-tasting foam and bordering on collapse until he’d gotten that particularly volatile mix of the drug and a dozen or so shots of some sugary-sweet, bright blue liquid that had been on offer at the bar at three for the price of one, out of his stomach.

Instead, it was best to stick to just water, in his experience, so he was quick to fetch two tall glasses with some ice, topped to not quite full, but enough to make the ice float, glad for the moment that Giordynne had settled down in the face of knowing she would be able to dose herself up very soon.

It would take twenty to thirty minutes for the pills to kick in, so once they’d each consumed one, John set to work on rolling a joint for them to share in the meantime, having taken rolling papers and a small herb grinder from the stash box before he’d taken it back upstairs. Practised fingers moved quickly, sprinkling ground up weed along the fold of the paper, John making sure he packed a little extra in than he normally did when he was smoking up alone, tucking everything in tightly before he ran the tip of his tongue along the gum line along the edge and sealed it, then quickly searched his pockets for his lighter, offering both up to Giordynne with a soft smile.

Giordynne lit the joint and inhaled, the end blazing brightly in the lighter's flame, like an ember at the heart of the hearth, closing her eyes as she let out a long, steady exhale, anticipating the fuzzy warmth that would come creeping through her body at any moment.

She took a second drag and passed it back to John, observing proper etiquette despite the little gremlin of her worst habits wanting to smoke the whole thing to itself.

John mirrored the action, breathing deeply as the smoke filled his lungs until he felt that slight scorch at the back of his throat, holding his breath for several seconds before he let it go, the air around them hung with lingering tendrils of smoke in the light of the fireplace.

Neither said a word until the joint was finished and extinguished and a comfortable buzz had settled in, John breaking the silence as he stubbed out the remnants in the ashtray on the table.

“Feeling any better?” he asked, hoping that Giordynne’s quietness was a good sign.

“Mm, a little,” she answered, a lazy smile curling the corner of her mouth, though her eyes still looked like she’d seen Hell, that glassy, thousand-yard stare just beneath the surface of her chocolate brown eyes.

“I’m pleased to hear that.”

John returned the smile, though his was a little warmer and more genuine as he sat back on the couch, gesturing to Giordynne that she was welcome to take more comfort from him if she needed it.

Giordynne obliged, curling up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder, content to sit quietly and drift on the hazy wave that had taken the edge off her desperation just enough to wait for the pill she’d taken to kick in and send her mind soaring away from the pain and sadness that had brought her to John’s door.

It wasn’t long before John started to feel that tell-tale pull at the edges of his soul that signified an oncoming rush of euphoria, a slight restlessness settling into his nerves that brought with it the impulse to get up and move about as his brain got the first taste of a massive dopamine and serotonin hit, though he didn’t want to suddenly leave Giordynne sitting there on her own if she hadn’t started coming up yet.

He needed have worried though when he noticed that Giordynne’s breathing pattern had changed significantly, falling into an intensely deep and slow rhythm as the drug in her system caused vascular dilation, evidenced when John stole a look at her eyes and saw that they were mostly the vast black expanse of her pupils with just a little ring of her irises now visible around the perimeter. Her fingertips also toyed idly with the hem of John’s shirt, running back and forth across the very edge, seeking out whatever sensory stimuli it was feeding her.

“Are you okay?” John asked, realising he had been holding his breath for a moment as he’d been checking to see if GiGi was feeling anything yet.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded, her expression relaxed and somewhat dreamlike as she looked up at him with big doe eyes, apparently ignoring the fact that she’d been upset as she’d been focusing on playing with the bit of fabric still between her fingers.

John sighed, relieved as he smiled, the expression slightly slackened and toothy as he forgot how to work his face properly.

“You want to maybe go for a walk or something’? Kinda feel like I want to do something, y’know?” he inquired, a hint of his old accent creeping into his speech now that he wasn’t keenly aware of how he sounded.

“Yeah. Where do you want to go? It’s still raining outside, I think?”

John shrugged. He hadn’t really thought that far ahead, and as far as he knew, his body was just telling him to get up, even if it was just to walk around the ranch until the impulse was satisfied.

“I don’t know,” he responded, trying to ask the impulse for more information and getting nothing. “I could give you a tour. I haven’t shown you around properly yet, have I?”

Giordynne giggled, thinking the smile on John’s face looked a little goofy but in a cute way.

“Okay.”

It took a few more seconds before John could get his body to realise he had to actually move to get up, but when he did, the action was slightly clumsy and uncoordinated before he regained his balance, holding out both his hands to Giordynne and wiggling his fingers in a gesture to grab them to pull herself up with, which she did, overcompensating her own balance by not realising John was going to tug on her hands to help her as she got up and ending up almost knocking him over in the process.

Once they were both righted and stable though, John wove his fingers with hers and led Giordynne out of the main room of the ranch, taking her through a door off to the side toward the kitchen.

John put on his best tour guide voice as he showed Giordynne everything on the ground floor, much to her delighted amusement, then looped back through the upper floor via a second staircase at the other end of the building, pointing out several bedrooms, a study and the master bedroom, explaining that all of the upstairs rooms also had French doors that opened out onto the walkway that ran around the upper portion of the outside of the building.

If they had both been sober, the tour might have had all the appeal of the sort of showing around a realtor did when trying to sell a house. Instead, the drug had the effect of exaggerating some of John’s mannerisms, whether consciously or not, and the extravagance John was putting into the performance had Giordynne giggling and playing along, letting John sweep her from room to room with grand gestures and the odd humorous anecdote, making the whole experience much more entertaining than it would have been otherwise.

By the time they got back out to the main hall via an upstairs door, the nagging impulse to move around had settled down, allowing them both to ride the crest of their mutual high without that jagged, restless edge picking at them anymore.

“What now?” Giordynne asked as they descended the stairs and returned to sitting in the living area in front of the fire.

“Is there something else you want to do?” John inquired, cocking his head to the side like a puppy, his jaw tensing a little with the effects of the MDMA in his system.

Giordynne fidgeted slightly, a thought seeming to plague her as she debated whether it was something she was allowed to ask.

“You know how you pretended to be my boyfriend when Aaron showed up when we were at the Grill Steak?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“I was thinking… Could I kiss you again? You can say no. It’s just, I kinda think that that would feel nice right now if that makes sense?”

“GiGi, you can kiss me again if you want to,” John smiled softly, his breathing still set into a constant roll of sighs as his head swam in euphoria. “I’d like that a lot.”

He did not wait for her to respond as he leaned in, tucking his finger under her chin and tilting her face up, laying an achingly soft kiss on her lips.

When John started to pull away, Giordynne found herself chasing after him, not wanting the sensation to end quite so quickly. John recognised it immediately, feeling emboldened as he kissed her again, this time letting his hand slide along her jaw, coming to rest beneath her ear as he cradled her head and let his senses and instincts, and Giordynne’s responses guide him in pushing for deeper intensity.

Giordynne reciprocated eagerly, running her hands up John’s chest and around his neck, the kiss growing from gentle and sweet to bruising and fevered in seconds, tongues and teeth joining the fray as all inhibition went out of the window in favour of more primal instincts.

If either of them had been sober, there might have been some restraint involved on one or both of their parts, but neither John nor Giordynne gave a damn about stopping to assess the situation right now as they both groped at each other hungrily, John getting momentarily frustrated with the slightly uncomfortable way he was half twisted at the middle to pause long enough to take a better hold of Giordynne and haul her onto his lap so that she was straddling him, giving John much more freedom to let his hands roam over Gigi’s curves and delighting in the sensation of her starting to grind her hips against his.

Whether it was just an effect of the drug they had taken or an unspoken attraction they had not yet begun to acknowledge, neither Giordynne nor John were thinking about that right now. Giordynne was focused solely on feeling anything other than what she had come here under earlier, and if that meant seeking out more than just emotional comfort from John right now, so be it.

_At least she had not gone back to her ex._

John was still vaguely conscious that if something happened between them tonight, it was more than likely a fleeting tryst, something to distract Giordynne from her grief for a little while, and John decided he was okay with that, even if it might sting a little if the next time she was on the verge of collapse, she ran back to Aaron, or found someone else.

He was used to sex being a casual, transactional thing, having so often used it as a tool to extract secrets from people in his previous life as John Duncan, or else as a weapon, a way to blackmail and gain favour from those who wouldn’t fall for his usual charms. John had been used his whole life, even by himself, so what was another notch on his bedpost in the pursuit of making someone he actually cared about for once feel better, at least temporarily.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the moment itself for as long as it happened to last, particularly as Giordynne’s grinding on his lap was already having the desired effect, John gripping her thighs and slightly adjusting their position to make his growing arousal a little more bearable for the time being.

Tattooed hands slid up beneath the back of Giordynne’s shirt, the fingers of his left hand finding the fastener of her bra, hooking under the edge and pulling in a sideways motion, popping it open with a deliberate, practised motion, then dragging his fingernails down the entire length of her back, unobstructed without the bra strap in the way. Giordynne mewled heatedly by his ear, John grinning at the response as he did it again, burying his face in the crook of her shoulder and biting down at the same time, making a mental note that this girl seemed to like a little pain in the right context when Gigi’s keening grew louder and more breathless.

John kept up his assault on the milky span of Giordynne’s throat for a few moments longer before he pulled the fabric of her shirt up entirely, along with her bra, taking everything off over the top of her head and tossing the wadded up garments aside. A lurid smirk etched across his face as he took in the vision of the tattoos that adorned the parts of Giordynne’s body that he hadn’t had the privilege of seeing before now, this painted lady all the more gorgeous a sight to behold in nothing but her own flesh, and John set to work showing his adoration, trailing kisses down from Giordynne’s collarbone to in between her breasts before he took one puckered nipple delicately in his mouth and rolled it gently with his tongue, his gaze not once breaking from hers in an act of fervent worship.

Giordynne bit at her bottom lip, stepping up the gyrations of her hips as she made short work of undoing all of the buttons on John’s shirt, wanting to rid him of it the way he had done hers.

John’s gentle ministrations had gotten more intense the moment Giordynne started rolling her hips ever harder, the friction drawing a low growl from John’s throat as he continued to lavish fevered kisses and bites to the pair of breasts cupped in both of his hands. If Giordynne continued to tease him this way, his resolve would only last a few moments longer before it would demand satisfaction, and Giordynne seemed wholly aware of that fact, reading John’s reactions just as fluently as he had been with hers, drawing him into a sexual game of Chicken.

The sensation was maddening in the most delicious way, John simultaneously loving and hating that Giordynne knew she had him by the balls, both literally and figuratively, and he only lasted out a few more seconds before he grabbed her by the hips and pulled her to the side so that she was flat on her back on the couch beside him as he turned and got onto his knees, crawling over the top of her.

John decided it was his turn to drive Giordynne wild with frustration, making a motion like he was moving in to kiss her again and only letting her lips graze his ever so slightly before he pulled away, turning his attention to the buttons on her jeans, fumbling only slightly in his eagerness to rid her of them, yanking them down around Giordynne’s hips when he got them open.

Running his nails down her stomach, John grinned gleefully as Giordynne let out another heated whine of arousal, arching her back as his nails grazed over the peaks of her hipbones. This was music to John’s ears and he took it as encouragement, tugging Gigi’s jeans even further down, intent on removing them completely and in his haste to do so, forgot that she had a prosthesis and accidentally it off with them.

There was a split second where confusion morphed into a panic that briefly flashed through John as he stared down at the empty space where her leg had been, then back up to Giordynne’s face, who looked surprised, but not at all angry.

Another second and they had both burst out laughing about it, John flooding with relief as he simply shrugged and muttered “ _Fuck it_ ,” before carrying on, unfastening his own pants and awkwardly wriggling out of them while trying to balance on one hand on the unsteady surface of a couch cushion.

The moment John was free from his own clothes, Giordynne was pulling him back down on top of her, still giggling as their mouths met again in sloppy, reckless, tongue-filled kisses and hands groped zealously at each other’s newly bared flesh.

Now it was John’s turn to grind his hips against Giordynne’s, his erection no longer frustratingly bound by the confines of his own jeans, only his silk boxer shorts and Giordynne’s lace panties now standing between them as he grazed the length of his cock over her pubic mound, aching to finally seek out the sweetness of her heat, but he wanted to draw things out just that little moment longer, slipping one hand between them and sliding his thumb underneath the thin fabric of Gigi’s underwear, delicately tracing the folds of flesh in the cleft between her thighs, seeking out that sensitive little nub at the top that, if he toyed with it just right, would have Giordynne squirming and making sounds even more inviting than those he’d already pulled from her.

He was right. With just a few careful swirling motions, Giordynne was whimpering and shuddering, already getting close to climax, but John didn’t want her to cum just yet, watching closely as he brought her to the edge, then backed off just long enough to allow John to rid them both of their last remaining item of clothing, though still leaving her frustrated enough for her to pout and beg him to fuck her already.

“As you wish, sweetheart,” John purred teasingly, pausing a moment longer to give himself a couple of strokes to ensure he was as hard as he was going to get, then eased himself inside a little at a time until he was buried balls deep inside that sweet, wet heat between Giordynne’s legs, savouring the feeling for a moment before he started to roll his hips forward in a slow, deliberate rhythm while he resumed using his hands and mouth to give the rest of GiGi attention.

John did not want this to just be a casual, drug-fuelled fuck. They might have both had a headful of X, but that was all the more reason for the sensual experience to be heightened as much as possible, especially if this was going to be a one-time thing, so why not make it a fuck to remember?

All thought of the outside world and any of the pain it caused either of them disappeared as John entangled his body with Giordynne’s, both still rolling deeply in the euphoric stage of their shared high, the overabundance of sensory stimuli making it difficult for either of them to know exactly where one of them ended and the other began beyond the boundaries of their physical selves, feeding into each other’s pleasure and finding it echoed back in ever-increasing ripples of intensity, joined together at every single point, both physical and emotional, in ways neither could tangibly quantify with words.

The high seemed to take on a brand new wave, as though they’d dropped a second dose, and it took both Giordynne and John several moments to recognise that the sensation wasn’t that of the drug, but of the steady climb towards orgasm, their lovemaking growing suddenly more frantic and wild as they chased down simultaneous release, moans mingling together, teeth grazing throats and collarbones, fingertips dug into flesh fervidly enough to leave marks in their wake.

Giordynne reached the edge of their passion first, falling headlong over the side into rapture, the pulsing flutter of the muscle walls in her sex dragging John right behind her into coming undone, milking him of his release as stars danced in the periphery of his vision, hedonistically dizzying in its intensity. Even after John could no longer keep up the rhythm, he lay on top of Giordynne, the panting of their breath mingling as kisses grew lazy and careless, though no less ardent in their affections as frantic passion turned to tender nuzzling and soft laughs and murmurs, neither repentant of the spontaneity of the act.

They lay together in the glow of the firelight, taking the time now to enjoy what was left of their mutually euphoric state from the X as they explored each other in a much more tender fashion without the frenzied drive of lust directing their actions, and when the high finally started to dissipate, John briefly went and grabbed a throw blanket from his bed and brought it down, draping it over them both as Giordynne snuggled up and lay her head on his chest again. They remained tangled together on the couch for the rest of the night, content not to move from that spot as they both eventually drifted into blissful sleep.


End file.
